Do you know cultural evolution?

Evolution is a fact. Such is the case of living organisms. However, cultures also behave like living organisms, constantly evolving and moving. Cultural evolution is about the scientific study of those changes.

We have all heard about evolution at some point. Word that surely leads us to think about Charles Darwin and his work “The origin of species”. His proposal was that there was biological evolution through natural selection. However, this is not the only type of evolution that exists. We humans also change due to cultural evolution.

Culture can be defined as the development of uses, customs, religions, values, social organization, technology, laws, languages, artifacts, tools, transportation, which are developed through the accumulation and transmission of knowledge for the best adaptation to the environment. The cultural evolutionFor its part, it is the transformation over time of cultural elements of a society, which also change people.

Cultural adaptation

with culture the ability to transmit knowledge and skills was developed. In this way, the emergence of a more refined technology was possible. Thanks to the cultural evolution, the evolutionary process accelerated. But the cultural evolution requires two skills so that it can develop. These are the social learning and theory of mind.

Although some animals seem to have cultural traditions, these do not evolve or improve over time. This will not happen unless these animals acquire theory of mind and social learning. On the contrary, human societies, through cumulative cultural adaptation, gradually develop and evolve.

As people imitate each other, they choose and modify existing technologies while storing knowledge and skills. The result of all these processes is a varied and complex culture.

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Theory of mind is the ability to attribute thoughts and intentions to other people.. This ability is acquired around the age of 6 and is common to humans. Theory of mind allows us to know that other people think too and, therefore, they also have intentions. This is what makes it easier for us to have common beliefs and allows us to develop culture.

At the same time, humans transmit culture. When we talk to someone about our religion and show them the sacred rites of it, we are transmitting our culture. Through social learning we imitate and learn from what we see. For example, Carl Sagan said that in Japan crabs were shaped like a samurai mask. This was because for generations crabs that had this shape were not caught. A culture that worshiped samurai helped people, through social learning, let these crabs go free and catch others.

Theories of cultural evolution

Theories that attempt to predict cultural evolution introduce a classification that comes from Karl Marx. This classification divides the different aspects of culture into three parts: infrastructure, structure and superstructure. Thus, All aspects of culture are classified into each of these three levels.

Infrastructure encompasses the most material aspects or aspects related to technology, means of production and natural resources. or humans that society uses in its economic and social activity. Changes in infrastructure are difficult to predict. These depend on technological advances, economic development and changes in the economy. Changes at other levels will affect the infrastructure.The organization of tasks and social functions are found in the structure. At this level we also have the hierarchical and power system, in addition to the rules that regulate relationships between individuals. Changes at this level have a great impact on the infrastructure and vice versa. For example, the massive incorporation of Western women into the labor market as a large number of jobs appear in the service sector. This change in infrastructure caused social relations to change.The superstructure encompasses the immaterial and ideal aspects. Some of these are religious beliefs, moral values and “high culture”, such as painting, architecture, music, literature or cinema. Changes at this level are usually in values and beliefs. These, when they change, usually do so to justify the prevailing social order. For example, the incorporation of women into the labor market was associated with an increase in the prestige of salaried women who work outside the home and contribute economic income to the home.

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Example of cultural evolution

Cultures try to adapt to the context in which they live. According to cultural materialism, a research approach created by Marvin Harris, changes in infrastructure, more specifically the mode of production or technology, are what cause new cultural factors to appear that change the structure and superstructure. Despite this, the three levels are interrelated and changes in one of them can affect the other levels, although in a more subtle way.

One of the cultural changes interpreted from the cultural evolution It is the reference to the abandonment of cannibalism. Cannibalism, a cultural practice, emerged in some societies as a byproduct of the practice of war.

But with the development of States and Empires, the objective of war ceases to be the destruction of the enemy. Prisoners of war can contribute to state expansion, so cannibalism disappears. Changes in infrastructure, the transition from tribe to State, cause the structure to change and cannibalism is abandoned.